“Planass”: To beat someone with the broad side of a cutlass. Rapso group 3Canal and their band, the Cut+Clear Crew, shared planass galore Sunday night, at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s. The powerful trio targeted various social and political issues using their music as their weapon. They dealt severely with issues in defence of the oppressed, distressed, wounded and downtrodden — their aim was to raise the consciousness of the people through Planass, their tenth show.

Starting at around 6.05 p.m., a pre-show featuring talented youths from the Tall Man Foundation, set the tone for the concert — from youngsters like Mogabi Thomas who performed “No War” to Omari Ashby who closed the pre-show with “We Multiply”, the pre-show provided a dynamic opening for an action packed concert. A dramatic production featuring the competence of actors Cecilia Salazar, Arnold Goindhan, Penelope Spencer and Conrad Parris charged the energy of patrons, leaving them in fits of laughter. And while there was a lot to laugh about during the dramatic production, there were various underlying issues which were highlighted.

Following the pre-show, 3Canal — Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts, Stanton Kewley, appeared on stage and wasting no time sought to challenge the issues, sharing musical licks on those deserving of their cutting lyrics.

Backed by the choir, “The Celestial Rapso Warrior Angels” a group of about 30 dynamic youngsters dressed in black and white, 3Canal started with “Gie Dem Bois”, a pore-raising rapso chant which signalled that no social or political ill will be left unscathed. By the time 3Canal had gone through a few of songs including “Watch Dem”, “Salt”, “No More”, “Millions”, “Fools”, Know Your Rights”, “The People” and “Can’t Done”, patrons were fully energised — some shook their heads, some waved, some folded their arms and some smiled at the lyrical war 3Canal unfurled.

Things took on a more cheerful outlook in the second half of the concert. A change of clothing from the bleak and hopeless black and white to bright vivid colours was a sign that 3Canal wanted to ease some tension a little and offered “Love Fire”, “Revolution”, “Wheel and Tumble”, “Sacrifice” and favourite “Talk Yuh Talk”.